The common sense diet

Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen01.08.2010

The first seven words of Michel Pollan's book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto have become something of a mantra for a new variety of sensible consumer: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."Jenelle Schneider
/ Canwest News Service

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It seems fairly pathetic, even now. In a vague attempt to improve our diet several summers ago, I banned hot dogs from our house.

Sure, they were still allowed at birthday parties, amusement parks and on camping trips. But in the meat drawer of the refrigerator? That's where I drew my admittedly arbitrary line.

But who could have guessed that this sort of equivocating, hypocrisy and half-assedness would become the food trend du jour?

There's never been so much written about food, its wholesomeness, its production or its demise. And yet, a trip to the grocery store has never been the cause of so much deliberation, confusion or angst.

But recently, a kinder, gentler food ethos has taken hold, one that's being generally referred to as common sense. It began last year, when acclaimed food writer and journalism professor Michael Pollan published In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. The first seven words of his book have become something of a mantra for this new variety of sensible consumer: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

While it's not quite as simple as it sounds — "food," he writes, is not the same as "nutrients" and it's hardly ever manufactured — it is a recognizable starting point for most of us.

And there are some unassailable facts to back up why this three-pronged approach is generally a good idea. Who can argue that eating real or "whole" foods isn't far superior to prepared or packaged ones with long lists of unpronounceable additives?

And consuming "not too much" is incontrovertible advice, too. More than half of our nation's adults are overweight. Statistics Canada reported last week that obesity continues to rise (along with diabetes and high blood pressure).

There may be slightly more disagreement over the eating of more plants, a.k.a. the eating of less meat. Still, a huge U.S. federal study earlier this month indicated that the more red and processed meat people eat, the greater the risk they'll die of cancer or heart disease.

And if the threat of an early death doesn't sway you, perhaps the health of the planet will. The United Nations' 2006 report, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that industrially raised cattle accounts for 18 per cent of all greenhouse gases, more even than transportation.

Completely overwhelmed yet?

So was Mark Bittman. The food writer and best-selling cookbook author was stunned when this study landed on his desk at the New York Times.

Even though at the time he was working on his popular book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, he did not vow to go vegan. Indeed, he was "not willing to give up one of life's basic pleasures" — meat.

But neither was he willing to simply take up the all-too-popular "everything gives you cancer nowadays" excuse for retaining the status quo. Instead, Bittman adopted a methodology similar to Pollan's, taking it to new levels of popularity in his recent book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating.

What ended up as a book started as Bittman's own accidental "route to saner eating." Two years ago, he was overweight with a number of the expected health issues that comes with it. He had high cholesterol, high blood sugar (there's diabetes in his family), a hernia, bad knees and sleep apnea.

But he was equally disturbed by the state of the food industry and its effect on the environment as he was about his personal health.

As a reporter and researcher for more than 30 years, he's written about food from almost every angle. Like anyone who follows food news, he had a hard time knowing how to respond to nutritional studies that contested other studies, or reports about the oceans being emptied of fish coming hard on the heels of warnings about the consequences of meat consumption. Most people in developed countries eat on average a half a pound of meat per day. Global production of meat has doubled since 1980 (and production of pigs and poultry has quadrupled) and is set to double again by 2050.

"Never before had I realized issues of personal and global health intersected so exquisitely," he writes.

So, with a friend, Bittman took what he believed to be a reasonable approach to better eating. He cut out junk food and ate a diet that was mostly "vegan until six." That is, other than the cream in his coffee, he tried not to eat any animal products until dinnertime. In the evening, he ate whatever he liked, including meat, bread, dessert, wine — nothing's "forbidden." He hardly eats any refined carbohydrates, but will "attack" really good white bread on the dinner table, and has pasta two times a week. Every couple of months, he indulges in a burger and fries and a Coke.

The result is that he eats about one-third as much meat, dairy and fish as he did two years ago, with barely any pain. He's also lost 35 pounds and his health concerns, with the exception of his bum knees, have disappeared.

Bittman is passionate about all aspects of food, but he's not doctrinaire. He absolutely believes that eating fewer animal products means "less environmental damage, including climate change; fewer antibiotics in the water and food supplies; fewer pesticides and herbicides; reduced cruelty and so on." But he doesn't prescribe a rigid eating plan: "no gimmick, no dogma, no guilt and no food police."

Finally, instead of nutritionists, doctors, activists and other so-called experts telling us what we must or must not eat in order to be healthy, thin or ethical, we're being given permission to draw our own lines. Instead of thinking about our "food choices," as eating is coming to be known, as a zero-sum game, we're being allowed to be a little hypocritical. It's OK to eschew foie gras but still eat meat, to cut out red meat but still consume chicken and fish, and it might even be acceptable to cook a hotdog on a camping trip.

It's this flexitarianism that has made Bittman's reasonable plan so popular, especially among gourmands who recognize the writer as one of their own. Ottawa restaurateur Stephen Beckta started the Bittman "diet" last week — "with the exception of Canada Day, because you got to eat sausage!" — and he says he already feels better, lighter, more energetic.

Although he just read the book, it "is having a big impact on me, because it feels right in so many ways." It also fits with Beckta's philosophy behind his recently opened, small-plates restaurant, Play Food + Wine, where he serves a few vegetarian dishes alongside beef tartare and pig cheeks, but in portions that would be a fraction of a main course elsewhere (including his original restaurant, Beckta Dining + Wine).

That idea of considered moderation is becoming the dominant sensibility when thinking about food.

Judi Varga-Toth owns Credible Edibles, a lunch cafe in Ottawa, where she serves lots of vegetarian sandwiches, salads and soups, but also turkey, sustainable salmon and tuna. She admits to sometimes "losing it" because she gets so frustrated by the same global food issues that were weighing on Bittman's mind. But she also realizes "we need to be a lot more pragmatic" about how most people approach their daily meals.

"I don't think everyone is going to become a vegetarian," says Varga-Toth, who is one herself. "But I do think that people will start realizing that meat should be a celebratory thing. So sure, have your Thanksgiving turkey."

Like Bittman, she's all for making small changes, such as instituting a dedicated home-cooked meal night, or deciding to eat beef only once a week, but buying a better quality.

END OPTIONALTRIM

"Quality" is a big issue for food advocates. Once upon a time, at least when it came to meat, quality referred to a triple-A rating. Today, it means organic, or local or sustainable.

In theory, organic food — usually certified by an independent body, raised without pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and supposedly with respect for the land — should be ideal. But what was once the purview of hippy-like farmers, small-scale organics has been overtaken by big business and so is suffering something of a backlash. Many question the ethical or even nutritional value of an organic label on an apple that has travelled here from New Zealand.

In recent years, the enthusiasm for organics has been subsumed by locavores. The growing popularity of locally produced food has been a boon for farmers' markets and the people who frequent them. As well as seasonal produce, many markets sell meat raised in a sustainable — another familiar buzzword — way, on a small scale that avoids all the worst practices and consequences of industrial food production.

There are times when shopping at a farmers' market is a no-brainer. Right now, local strawberries are selling for about the same price as imported berries are in supermarkets, but taste 100 times better. But a couple of weeks ago, the Ottawa Farmers Market at Lansdowne Park offered little but a lovely selection of radishes.

This is only a slight exaggeration, but it underlines the fact, as Bittman points out, that while that eating locally certainly has many more positives that negatives, "local food is usually expensive, and it can't provide everything for everyone." (There's also the inconvenient fact of the long winters in most parts of this country.)

He refers to buying "organic, or local, or sustainable, or whatever" as a personal choice, not one integral to sane eating.

And that must come as welcome news to most Canadian families, whose median income is about $66,000. For too long, the discussion about food has been an obsession of the upper middle class, with money and time to spare.

For many folks some of the proposed "solutions" have been impractical, foremost among them the growing of one's own food. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having a vegetable or herb garden, but the idea that that's how we're going to combat the problems caused by the industrial food system is nothing short of goofy (with apologies to Michelle Obama).

Gardening also takes time and energy, two commodities sorely lacking for a lot of modern families. Indeed, almost all plans for diet makeovers, including Bittman's to some extent, underplay how much time it takes to eat well.

Anyone who has ever vowed to wash and prep enough fruits and vegetables for the week knows full well how difficult a ritual it is to observe. When families embraced new "convenience" foods in the 1950s and '60s, it wasn't because they were lazy, or didn't care about their kids or the Earth. It was because they (mostly women) were busy taking care of their families and homes, and prepared foods offered them a much-needed break.

Now that most Canadian women work outside the home, families have less time than ever. And yet a large part of the solution to our food dilemmas seems to be to prepare more food ourselves. This isn't always feasible.

In comes Robyn O'Brien, a conservative, married mother of four with an MBA who took on the food industry after her youngest had a severe allergic reaction to eggs. Although directed at the connection between toxins and food allergies (mentioning O'Brien in conjunction with Pollan and Bittman will render some foodies apoplectic), her book The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick — and What We Can Do About It offers advice on how to reduce your family's exposure to food additives and chemicals.

A self-professed terrible cook, O'Brien buys her food where most people do: the grocery store. Her suggestions for improving your kids' meals include swapping blue yogurt for plain (and adding your own toppings) or serving pasta with butter or olive oil instead of packaged noodles with powder mix.

"I didn't need to imitate Martha Stewart or turn into someone who cultures her own yogurt out of fresh goat's milk," she writes. "Nor did my kids need to turn into little angels clamouring for bean sprouts and organic celery sticks."

Her bottom-line advice is much like Bittman's: Shop where you like and buy what looks freshest and most appealing to you; avoid what seems like too much trouble; improve your diet in your own way, even if it's just one thing.

It all seems so reasonable.

As Bittman writes, the agenda isn't about suggesting you become a vegetarian or eat only organic food or shop in specialty markets, but "to inject some common sense into the discussion."

'No Gimmick, No Dogma, No Guilt . . . and No Food Police'

Common-sense gurus dish small helpings of healthy advice

Michael Pollan

Author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008)

A journalism professor and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Pollan began the common sense movement when he urged readers to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

— Don't eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.

— Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter, where real food tends to be located.

— Don't eat anything that won't rot eventually.

— Always leave the table a little hungry.

— Enjoy meals with the people you love.

— Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline.

Robyn O'Brien

Author with Rachel Kranz of The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick — and What We Can Do About It (2009)

Although this book is written from the point of view of a mother-turned-activist crusading against the toxins in our food supply — and how they may be related to increased allergies in children — O'Brien offers some painless ways of decreasing the chemical content of your groceries. Among her suggestions: replace orange mac and cheese kits for the white-cheddar variety; swap blue yogurt for plain; and have original Miracle Whip instead of the fat-free variety.

"I didn't need to imitate Martha Stewart or turn into someone who cultures her own yogurt out of fresh goat's milk," she says. "Nor did my kids need to turn into little angels clamouring for bean sprouts and organic celery sticks."

Mark Bittman

Author of Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating (2009)

The immensely popular food and cookbook writer makes a personal and impassioned plea for reasonable eating. Spurred to action by his own health problems as well as concern about the environment, Bittman began his own menu makeover by eliminating junk food and over-refined carbs. But that doesn't mean he won't indulge in white bread when it's really good. He eats less meat, but has no intention of becoming a vegetarian.

"I have no more agenda than to inject some common sense into the discussion."

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